Embodiments of the disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for monitoring health of rotor blades or airfoils.
Rotor blades or airfoils play a crucial role in many devices with several examples including axial compressors, turbines, engines, a turbomachine, or the like. For example, an axial compressor has a series of stages with each stage comprising a row of rotor blades or airfoils followed by a row of static blades or static airfoils. Accordingly, each stage comprises a pair of rotor blades or airfoils and static airfoils. Typically, the rotor blades or airfoils increase the kinetic energy of a fluid that enters the axial compressor through an inlet. Some part of the kinetic energy is converted into pressure energy due to decrease in relative velocity, and the rest of the kinetic energy is converted into pressure due to decrease in absolute velocity of the fluid. Accordingly, the rotor blades or airfoils and static airfoils play a crucial role to increase the pressure of the fluid.
Furthermore, the rotor blades or airfoils and the static airfoils are vital due to wide and varied applications of the axial compressors that include the airfoils. Axial compressors, for example, may be used in a number of devices, such as, land based gas turbines, jet engines, high speed ship engines, small scale power stations, or the like. In addition, the axial compressors may be used in varied applications, such as, large volume air separation plants, blast furnace air, fluid catalytic cracking air, propane dehydrogenation, or the like.
The airfoils operate for long hours under extreme and varied operating conditions such as, high speed, fluid load, and temperature that affect the health of the airfoils. In addition to the extreme and varied conditions, certain other factors lead to fatigue and stress on the airfoils. The factors, for example, may include centrifugal forces, fluid forces, thermal loads during transient events, load due to non-synchronous vibration such as rotating stall, and the cyclic load due to synchronous resonant vibration. Prolonged effects of the factors lead to defects and crack in the airfoils. One or more of the cracks may widen with time to result in a liberation of an airfoil or a portion of the airfoil. The liberation of airfoil may be hazardous for the device that includes the airfoils, and thus may lead to enormous monetary losses. In addition, it may be unsafe and horrendous for people near the device.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to develop a system and method that may predict health of airfoils in real time. More particularly, it is desirable to develop a system and method that may predict cracks or fractures in real time.